


What You Offer

by realMurph



Series: MFSWeek 2020 [2]
Category: Motherland: Fort Salem (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/F, Gen, Unit Unity, day 2: found fmaily, introspective, mfsweek 2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-23
Updated: 2020-06-23
Packaged: 2021-03-04 06:08:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,681
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24878956
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/realMurph/pseuds/realMurph
Summary: MFSWeek Day 2: Found FamilyAn introspective look at Raelle as she goes through life alone, picking up new love and family along the way.
Relationships: Abigail Bellweather & Raelle Collar & Tally Craven, Raelle Collar/Scylla Ramshorn
Series: MFSWeek 2020 [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1800214
Comments: 8
Kudos: 68





	What You Offer

**Author's Note:**

> Day 2 is here! If you haven't checked out mfsweek on Tumblr yet, definitely get on that! So many creators have put out some fantastic content already and there's more to come.
> 
> I went a bit more abstract and poetic with this one, because what's more poetic than found family! I love how much the Unit loves each other and I was happy to dive in to that dynamic a little. It's a bit more focused on Raelle's perspective because I wanted to include Byron and Scylla also.
> 
> Shout outs again to my STUNNING beta [who is amazing](https://archiveofourown.org/users/suchbeautifuldoubt) and needs to go to bed at a more reasonable hour. Go read her stuff, you'll never be the same.

Raelle was pretty used to taking care of herself. She’d been doing it all her life. With her mom constantly gone, now very gone, and her dad working all the time to keep them afloat, she learned to navigate the world on her own. To stand on her own two feet. To support herself. She was nothing but Alone now.

The first new school she went to, there was no one to show her around and she got lost. She didn’t try very hard to find her class, to be fair. Instead she wandered out to the back fields and sat in the grass, trying to find her mom in the clouds. Later, she took the detention slip in silence and sat apart from the other kids in the room.

When her dad started working nights, he signed her up for a sports program at the rec center. He meant well, not wanting her to be alone so much, but she would have preferred that to this crowd of screaming, sweating people who ignored her. Must be the resting bitch face. Nevertheless, she loved her dad so she went, electing to sit on the sidelines while the others played, using the tricks her mother taught her to help them stretch out their sores and bandage their sprains. But she never got invited to the celebration parties or post-practice pizza nights, and that was fine with her. She told herself.

Eventually she started putting more effort into her school work, in order to secure a scholarship to a good University, to take the pressure off her dad. He was grateful, but sad to see her off. She promised to visit him to make him feel better, but she was mostly glad to get out of that town, where her mother used to be, and she brought nothing with her but some clothes, old letters, and the Alone that followed.

At her new University, she went through all the motions of Freshman orientation, meeting the people in her dorm, doing the mind-numbing ice breakers the RAs put them through, but it was half-hearted, and she left early. She did not like her roommates. Who shoves three whole people into a college dorm room?? But three there were and She did not like Them. The leggy redhead who bounced around the room was loud and childish, possibly having never left the farm before. And the leggy business major (seriously, why was everyone so tall??) was smug and pompous, Ms. High and Mighty. Fine, she could live with them, but they didn’t have to be friends. She was better off alone anyway. She told herself.

And so it went: She went to class, usually, and signed on to volunteer hours as the lacrosse team’s assistant medic-in-training or whatever they called it as a part of her sport medicine major. Annoyingly, Leggy 1 and Leggy 2 were both on the team, making it harder to get away from them. She dealt with it. In a totally healthy way.

So it went, so she went, and where she went the Alone followed.

Until…

It started with Scylla.

She met a girl in the backwoods. A girl with bright eyes, bright smile, bright laugh. She sparked something in Raelle, something she hadn’t felt in a long time. So long she could no longer put a name to it. But it made her smile, made her laugh, made her ask to see the girl again. Scylla. And when the girl said yes, she felt the Alone get a little smaller and she thought she might like this new feeling.

Scylla continued to make her feel the New Thing. It was bright and happy and loud and a little unnerving for Raelle. But Scylla was patient and Scylla was kind and Scylla was wild, and eventually the New wasn’t so scary. It made her brave enough and strong enough to support Scylla when she needed the New in turn, and it drew them close and bound them tightly. She held Scylla and she held the New and she did not let go. But the Alone still pulled.

And then it was Tally.

Her leggy, red-haired roommate was loud and childish and naive, and she was soft. It got under Raelle’s skin and stuck, the Softness. It itched and she did not like it. She wished the world would show its true, Harsh face to Tally, to make the Soft go away. But then the world did and Tally got quiet and Tally got wise and Raelle did not like it. On a whim, she shared some of her New with Tally. And it made Tally smile and laugh, and then she hugged Raelle, with all the Soft she had inside her, and she kept some of the New for herself (instead of the loud, thankfully).

Raelle couldn’t remember the last time she was hugged the way Tally hugs. It was different from Scylla, who holds her with so much New she almost wants to cry. Different, but good different. Tally didn’t just have Soft, though. She was honest and dependable and let Raelle rage at her when she was mad- or scared- but she did not allow Raelle to walk all over her. Tally never learned to fear the world or its Harsh, but she did learn to be wary. They shared their New and their Soft and together they were okay. And the Alone paused. Considered.

And then it was Byron.

Once, she found a boy hurt on the sidewalk. He was scared and in pain and she stayed and helped him until her mother came and took him with her. She decided she wouldn’t try anymore because it didn’t work that time and it hurt. And then the boy’s friend came and thanked her for trying. Byron said it wasn’t her fault the boy was gone, and he was grateful someone was there to try. And Scylla said the same. And Tally. (Even the other Leggy said so). And her mother, later that night while she slept. But Byron said it best. And he said a lot of other things too. Things that made her feel better, things that made her question other things, and things that made her want to try again. And things that made her laugh (those Codices are funny, Raelle told him, but if Gerit ever tries that on Tally, she’ll castrate him. And she doesn’t specify which ‘him’.) He said ‘Yes’ a lot, and Raelle needed to hear it because the world was Harsh and liked to say No. He said Yes when she asked if it was ok to be scared, make mistakes, fall in love, touch strange mushrooms, and so on.

Byron had Yes, and he had plenty to share. And he had gratitude, but Raelle told him to keep that. She didn’t need it. She already had her own. Her own gratitude for all the Yes, and the New and Soft that she also showed him. He was happy for those, and they helped him feel better about his friend being gone. She didn’t get to see him all the time, but he was always just a bird-gram away (seriously, that men’s team was weird) and he always said Yes to whatever she wanted to do. The Alone grumbled.

And then it was Abigail.

The High and Mighty was not her favorite person. Probably she was her least favorite. She was smug and pompous and decided she knew everything about everyone and probably had a very perfect life with a bright future laid out for her.  _ Why are you like this?! _ She would yell inside her head, frequently, whenever Leggy 2 spouted one of her stupid action-hero lines (seriously, who talks like this??). And then she met her mother, Petra.  _ Ah. I see. That’s why. _ Raelle discovered she was right: Abigail did have a bright and perfect future laid out for her. By her mother. Raelle and Tally shared a look with each other and decided that the next time Petra came around they would take Abigail and find somewhere else to be. And it worked. Raelle poked and needled and Tally mediated (she had long arms to match her long legs and it came in handy holding the two forcefully apart) until Raelle finally stared down the High and Mighty and said What can you offer?

It turned out, Abby had two things (of course she did, Abigail Fucking Bellweather does nothing half-standard). She had Steady and she had Strong. Turns out, Steady was the thing they all needed, because each girl already had her own Strong. So when Gerit did a dumb and Tally got hurt, Abigail held her together with the Steady. And when Raelle raged and wept at the world and its Harsh, Abby was there for her too. And then Abby’s cousin died and Steady wasn’t enough. But they had New and Soft and even Yes, You can be sad Abigail it’s ok, and she was. They were. And the Alone withered.

And finally it was Raelle.

She had the New, and the Soft, and the Yes, and the Steady, and she liked it. But she worried because she didn’t know what she was supposed to add to it. And they all looked at her sort of funny. The New told her: you give Scylla New. The Soft told her: You give Tally Soft. The Yes told her: You give Byron Yes! And the Steady told her: You give Abigail Steady (and a consistent headache). And later that night, her mom told her: Emotions are not a one-way street Raelle. So in the morning she found her sisters and her best friend and her girlfriend (that she definitely will marry one day) and she said I love you, you’re my family. And they all looked at her sort of funny. And then Abigail called her a shitbird for figuring it out so late.

  
  


As for the Alone…

Knowledge and Acknowledgement gives a thing its power. Its presence. Its existence. And the Alone was nothing now.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you liked! Want more? Find me on Tumblr at lesbitomboyish. I take requests, prompts, etc, for other ships as well (I'm just very very gay). Or just come to chat, that's cool too.
> 
> More MFSWeek to come, as well as some other projects, so don't miss out!
> 
> [Subscribe to me](https://archiveofourown.org/users/realMurph) or this story so you don't miss updates or new postings!
> 
> be happy, stay excellent <3


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